October 5, 2008

Sarah Who? A Final Word

I decided yesterday that I was done with Sarah Palin. One final post, and that's that. Unless, of course, she wins the election (and I do mean she). Yesterday, when she slandered Obama in the worst possible way--short of playing on rabid racism--I reached fed up. She claimed that Obama consorts with terrorists. The "terrorist" in question is University of Illinois professor William Ayers. The University of Illinois, the most conservative institution in the Big Ten, is twisting young minds with terrorism. Who knew?? (Friends, I hear your raucous laughter.)

Yes, Ayers was one of the founders of the Weather Underground during the Vietnam era. Palin is not old enough to remember the upheaval of the Sixties, nor has she experienced an urban environment during tumultuous times. A lot of people did a lot of outrageous things. Perhaps she doesn't comprehend the passage so many people have made from immature Sixties radical to mature, mainstream professional. But never mind all that; she doesn't care. What kind of "terrorist" activity did Ayers and Obama engage in? Here are the facts:
Obama's Chicago home is in the same neighborhood where Ayers and Dohrn live. Beginning in 1995, Ayers and Obama worked with the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge on a huge school improvement project. The Annenberg Challenge was for cities to compete for $50 million grants to improve public education. Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, and Obama was recruited onto the board. Also from 1999 through 2001 both were board members on the Woods Fund, a charitable foundation that gave money to various causes, including the Trinity United Church that Obama attended and Northwestern University Law Schools' Children and Family Justice Center, where Dohrn worked.
-CNN Fact Check
If these are Gov. Palin's idea of terrorism, then I salute her--with the middle finger of my right hand--and, then, I must move on. There is no need to spend more time and energy on a woman whose character flaws and blind ambition assure that she is not a rising star but a shooting star, a flash that burns itself out as it becomes most visible.

People of all political persuasions have had just about enough of this gun-totin' hockey mom whose command of the English language is so poor that it's often impossible to discern the objects of her phrases. In The National Interest Online, a publication of the The Nixon Center, Jacob Heilbrunn expressed concern about the following Palin statement from the VP debate:
I'm thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are.
"Jeepers creepers," said Heilbrunn in his article, The Mad Matron, "Palin apparently wants to tell McCain what his strengths are." I thought she was referring to the strengths of the Vice President, but who knows. The real issue is her unambiguous belief in the expanded powers of the VP, a la Dick Cheney. Heilbrunn characterized Palin's performance this way:
This wasn’t a simpering hockey mom cheering on her big guy, but “mommy dearest” laying down the law to her charges around the nation.
The full article is interesting reading, especially in light of the source, The Nixon Center.

Frankly, if it weren't so obvious that Gov. Palin is merely an unwitting pawn of the McCain campaign, I would have much harsher words for her. With more polish and political savvy, she could be far more dangerous than Ahmadinejad or actual terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden. If she were shrewd enough to become President, her simplistic jingoism and narrow world view could finish the Bush/Cheney destruction of this democracy and drive the Middle East into 'nukuler' conflagration. But the boys of the Republican Party will make sure she never gets that far.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

OMG. CHEERS. Intellectual capital of our nation? It took her 6 years to earn a 4-year degree, at five different 3rd tier institutions. I shudder ...

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